Gluzman among people of the year (04/09/00)

Gluzman among people of the year

Eastern Economist

KYIV - The Prometheus-Prestige prizes for 1999 were awarded in the Liudyna Roku ceremony at the Ukraina Palace of Culture on March 18. This year's results offered a few surprises, such as political activist Semyon Gluzman, who was named Human Rights Defender of the Year.

"I have never been awarded anything before," he said, "and I intend to continue working until all courts and all the law enforcement agencies in my country truly defend human rights."

Dr. Gluzman is a physician/psychiatrist, a former political prisoner of the Brezhnev regime in the USSR who served 10 years of imprisonment and exile for conducting an independent psychological examination of Petro Grigorenko, a former Soviet Red Army general-turned-political dissident who became a founding member of the Moscow and Ukrainian Helsinki monitoring groups. Dr. Gluzman founded the International Medical Rehabilitation Center for the Victims of Wars and Totalitarian Regimes in 1994. [His appeal for support of the center was published in The Ukrainian Weekly on February 27.]

Yevhen Chervonenko, president of Orlan, a large beverage producer, was named Industrialist of the Year. Blitz-Inform was named Company of the Year and its magazine Natali won Magazine of the Year for the third year running, beating out newcomer PiK (Polityka i Kultura) and the stylish Akademia.

Pop Star of the Year went to popular Lviv singer Ruslana and Athlete of the Year went to Andrii Shevchenko, the soccer star now playing for Milan. Business Development Committee head Oleksandra Kuzhel was named Woman of the Year.

Unlike previous years, the 860 specialists could only nominate candidates in designated categories, not in their own sphere of activity. Organizers still are not excluded, however, and Man of the Year went to Mykhailo Semynozhenko, head of the organizing committee.

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